


Birds of A Feather, Share Their Pain Together

by KnifeBinaryPrince



Series: Dusk Wings [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I suck at writing these two honestly jfc, Injury, M/M, Past Violence, Wingfic, anyways canon has no bearing on me and it can fight me out in the parking lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 15:32:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15666075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnifeBinaryPrince/pseuds/KnifeBinaryPrince
Summary: “Lance please open the door, we’re all worried about you.” Allura said, voice coming through the door clearly despite the dense metal of it.He wanted to, god he wanted to open the door but he couldn’t. The fear he’d felt when he was younger had resurfaced, paralyzing and cold to the bone, biting into every rational and logical part of his brain it could hold onto, the cold fear gripping him like a vice. He sniffled again, tuning out Pidge and Hunk’s voice, everyone pretty much taking turns trying to convince him to come out.They had no such luck.





	Birds of A Feather, Share Their Pain Together

**Author's Note:**

> Mmmmmm I need to actually read up on their character because it's likely I'm definitely not writing them in character but at the same time canon has no meaning to me.
> 
> Also this has no set season, maybe s3? or 4? They all kinda blur together so let's just say it exists in the voltron universe.

Lance sniffled, wiping away furiously at the tears he had tried so hard not to show. Even with the door to his room closed he could still hear the worried voices of his friends outside, each one sounding more concerned than the last and just as confused. They had good reason to be, after all, he did pretty much run off after they’d caught him stretching out his wings.

 

Him having wings wasn’t the issue, most people had them, it was more why he’d ran off that they were definitely confused by, more confusion layered on due to the fact that he’d never showed anyone his wings before. Even during bonding exercises with the team that required them to use their wings he’d kept his jacket on, finding every excuse in the book to skip out on it much to Shiro’s displeasure and the concern and confusion of the others.

 

“Lance please open the door, we’re all worried about you.” Allura said, voice coming through the door clearly despite the dense metal of it.

 

He wanted to, god he wanted to open the door but he couldn’t. The fear he’d felt when he was younger had resurfaced, paralyzing and cold to the bone, biting into every rational and logical part of his brain it could hold onto, the cold fear gripping him like a vice. He sniffled again, tuning out Pidge and Hunk’s voice, everyone pretty much taking turns trying to convince him to come out.

 

They had no such luck.

 

 

 

Days went by where Lance didn’t once dare come out of his room, only opening the door when Hunk or Pidge had left something out for him to eat and making sure beforehand that the hall was indeed empty before snatching the plate inside.

 

Everyone was starting to get extremely worried for the blue paladin, so much so that Keith had been able to pick up on it during one of his routine calls from the Blade of Marmora to Voltron. He’d noticed something was up when the blue paladin was nowhere to be seen, and everyone, despite their smiles, looking worse for wear with worry evident on their faces.

 

“What’s wrong?” He could have at least started with a greeting but this was Keith, straight to the point, something that was apparently appreciated since none of the paladins felt like dancing around the subject or trying to lead up to it.

 

“And where’s Lance?”

 

“He’s in his room.” Hunk said, “Where he’s been for the past week.” Pidge expanded on, wings shuffling on her back slightly.

 

“Is he sick?” Keith asked next, brows pinched.

 

“We don’t know, he hasn’t spoken to anyone, we leave him food and he eats at least from what we can tell, but other than that we don’t exactly know what’s bothering him.” Allura explained.

 

“I’ll be there in a few hours.”

 

“Keith you can’t just-” The transmission cut, interrupting Shiro from his oncoming spiel, the man giving a sigh and hanging his head in defeat. Some things never changed with Keith.

 

“How is he going to get here in hours? The nearest Blade base is at least a few days away, even with their fastest ships. And that’s if he’s even at that specific base.” Pidge said aloud, her question being answered shortly after as a roar went through the castle, the red lion flying by the castle’s visuals in a red, blurry streak.

 

“Okay so I guess that’s how.” Pidge said, wings sinking low to the ground.

 

“Seems we better get ready for his arrival then!” Coran said cheerfully, running off to prepare for the paladin’s arrival.

 

 

 

Hours later found Keith at the castle, everyone save for Lance meeting him in the hangar, Red looming over them all as a solid presence in the background.

 

“Where’s Lance?” Was what Keith said in lieu of any greeting, Hunk having expected this, answering without missing a beat, “He’s still in his room, hasn’t moved or made a peep from there since the last time you asked. Even when I told him you were coming back.”

 

“Anyone have an idea why he ran off in the first place?” Keith asked, arms crossed and dark, ink black wings settling behind him, pressed up against his spine and down his back, the dark tips in line with the backs of his ankles.

 

“Me and Hunk went to look for him, Hunk was going through the equivalent of an attic I’d found a few weeks ago and found some old Altean video games and thought Lance might like a go at them.”

 

“We found him in the Blue lion’s hangar stretching out his wings on Blue.” Hunk continued on for her, Pidge picking up right after. “They were the prettiest wings I’ve ever seen.” Her amber brown wings shifting and fluttering excitedly as she thought about it.

 

“We tried to call him over but he bolted before we could ask him.” Hunk finished.

 

“Why would Lance hide his wings like that? Especially ones so pretty?” Allura asked, a skeptical look on her face. While Alteans themselves didn’t have wings, Allura and Coran held a certain appreciation for them, learning all they could of their paladin’s impressive appendages and accommodating them as needed.

 

“Who knows, but it is weird, considering it’s Lance and all.” Pidge responded, brows pinched as she thought about it some more.

 

Before anyone could continue the conversation Keith left them, walking briskly out the doors and into the hallway, leaving the others to watch after him, silence blanketing the hangar.

 

 

 

The hallway was cold and empty, yet achingly familiar as Keith walked through, feet barely making a sound as he arrived at the blue paladin’s door. He rapped softly on it’s cold surface, voice calm and clear as he spoke. “Lance? You in there?” He could just barely hear a rustle, ears straining to pick up every little sound. “The others told me what happened, said you weren’t feeling good. Is…is everything alright?” There was only silence now, “Pidge said she saw you stretching your wings out.” Still silent. “She says they were the prettiest she’d ever seen.”

 

The silence stretched on for a few more minutes, Keith sliding down against the door, back to the cold and shivering at the feeling as his wings pressed uncomfortably against the frigid metal, the longer ends of his wings curving as they pressed against the ground.

 

He bumped the back of his head against the door, taking a slow breath before he spoke.

 

“You’re afraid they’ll try to take your feathers too.”

 

It was more of a statement than a question, and the answer he got back more or less confirmed it.

 

“Too?”

 

He barely heard it through the door, ears straining to hear Lance’s voice through the metal that separated them both. But it was unmistakable, small and soft, a little choked up sounding too, like he’d been crying for awhile.

 

Keith could relate.

 

The door opened behind him suddenly, barely giving him a second to correct himself and straighten up, turning to face the empty doorway. With slow, purposely noisy steps Keith entered Lance’s room, spotting the other sitting with his back pressed against the far wall. Keith mirrored his position, sitting down against the opposite wall, wings slack against his back, feathers bending to fit along the curve of his body as he sat on the floor.

 

He took a moment to look at the paladin seated across from him, noticing how he had his jacket wrapped tightly around his back and shoulders, more than likely pressing uncomfortably against his wings. Lance had his arms wrapped around his legs that were pressed to his chest, face resting a bit behind his knees. The room was blanketed in a tense silence, one that prickled at the skin and caused even the barest breath to seem loud and disruptive.

 

“You know they wouldn’t even touch you if you asked.” Keith said, finally breaking the silence.

 

“I know but...” Lance’s voice trailed off, silence encroaching the room again, Keith speaking up before it became suffocating.

 

“Yeah, it’s still hard, even with family.”

 

Lance looked up at him, eyes red rimmed and a bit glassy from earlier, a look of confusion on his face at Keith’s words.

 

Wordlessly Keith stretched out his left wing, the appendage taking up most of the wall space as he stretched it out, ink black and dark as the void of space against the stark white of the wall behind him. What drew Lance’s eyes was the large and bedraggled gap of missing feathers at the bottom of his wing, the secondaries there missing and leaving a gaping hole that messed with the overall majesty of such a sight. And judging by how none had regrown he guessed the actual wing had been too damaged beyond repair, healing over and keeping any new ones from growing in.

 

How Keith was able to keep that hidden for so long Lance didn’t know, although he’d never seen Keith’s actual wings, not outside the paladin suits anyways. The suits themselves usually formed a thin black covering to encase their wings, allowing them to utilize them during battle without worrying about the elements affecting them like they would if they were completely exposed. Apparently the suits filled in the missing pieces as well.

 

“Asshole kids during the garrison.” Keith answered Lance’s unspoken question, bending over a bit as he drew his wing in to settle against his back, the ends of it bending and sliding along his leg.

 

When Keith looked up Lance was brushing his jacket off, stretching out his wings before Keith could tell him he didn’t have to.

 

Keith didn’t think he could speak even if he wanted to, the sight before him rendering him speechless.

 

The prettiest wings he’d ever seen where currently stretched out before him, a blue that reminded him of the sky and ocean rolled into one. Depending on where the light hit the sheen was a bright fluorescent kind of mint-blue, the shadowed parts turning a dark blue-purple color that reminded him of the tulips he’d see around the Garrison gardens during the spring and summer months.

 

As he looked he noticed that Lance’s right wing looked odd, some of the feathers crooked here and there, like they grew in wrong, some of them looking worse for wear than others. It was like there were old and new feathers mixed on his wing and sprinkled sparsely all over the wing.

 

“Asshole kids, preschool.” Lace muttered, his wings falling limply at his sides, Keith noticing how his wings were shaking just from the strain of holding them up.

 

He likely kept them hidden ever since.

 

“I’m sorry.” Keith said awkwardly, finding nothing else to say after that. At least that explained why he still had most of his feathers. At that age it would have just been fluffy blue down, a perfect eye catcher for young kids that didn’t know the meaning of personal space or boundaries, thinking his feathers were a free for all and grabbing at whatever they could. It made Keith sick just thinking about it.

 

“Don’t be, mama made sure the school was unable to stay open after that. And it was only down.” Lance muttered, shuffling his jacket back over his shoulders and back, wings settling back into place neatly. Or as neatly as he could while sitting like he was.

 

“That doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt you.” Keith spoke up, a hard bite in his voice that he tried to keep down, eyes glaring pointedly at the floor, fists clenched, his nails biting into his palm.

 

Lance knew however it wasn’t meant for him.

 

That thought made him smile.

 

The blue paladin shuffled to the side a bit, patting the cold floor next to him, nearly laughing at the wide eyed and confused look the red paladin had on his face.

 

“Come on, Pidge and Hunk dropped off a few games for me awhile ago, there’s one that vaguely reminds me of Worms Armageddon and it’s better with more than one player.” Lance explained, stretching over to grab at the controllers thrown on his bed.

 

Keith watched him for a moment, heart thudding in his chest as he watched Lance start setting up the console and game. In another tick he got up and wordlessly walked over, accepting the invitation to play.

 

If his face warmed when he realized Lance had allowed him to sit on the same side as his scarred wing Lance pretended not to notice, his own face warm as well.

 

“Hey Keith?”

 

Keith forced himself to look at Lance, willing the red he was sure was on his face away.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Thanks.”

 

The small, albeit nervous smile Keith received nearly made his heart stop.


End file.
